Browsing by Author "Tangen, James"

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    Arrangements for adult service users who are homeless in English mental health trusts
    (Mental Health Review Journal, 2017) Lucas, Steven; Archard, Philip; Tangen, James; Murphy, David
    Purpose: This paper reports on an analysis of arrangements in English mental health trusts to meet the needs of adult homeless people. Mental ill-health is disproportionately higher amongst the homeless yet they are underrepresented in accessing mental health services. In recent years, government strategy to improve health outcomes for the homeless and practice guidance on work with this service user group has emphasised the need for NHS services to improve care pathways and service provision for the homeless, and collaborate more closely with homelessness organisations. Design/methodology/approach: Responses to Freedom of Information requests sent to trusts were analysed. The requests asked trusts for information concerning partnerships with external agencies, particular projects/staff, training trust professionals have access to, referral pathways, and intervention models/approaches informing work with homeless service users. Findings: Forty-nine trusts provided information that could be used in the analysis. Just under half of these had dedicated arrangements or resources, including outreach teams and clinical staff co-located in homeless organisations. The remaining trusts indicated they either had some limited specific arrangements, such as links between local homeless agencies and existing services, or no dedicated arrangements. Training to help trust professionals address issues associated with homelessness tended to be minimal if provided at all. Originality/value: This analysis adds further evidence to concerns that homeless people’s mental health needs are not being adequately considered by services at a local level and that there is a lack of appropriate pathways through which they can access treatment and care.
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    Bodies, voices and credibility: Instability in the construction of the Victim of Trafficking status
    (British Sociological Association/University of Nottingham, 2016-01-18) Tangen, James
    Claims are made at international and at the national level in the UK that policies to tackle human trafficking are based on a human rights approach. Multiple claims are embedded within this claim about the nature and scale of human trafficking, presenting an idealised view of the victim of trafficking as clearly defined. This perspective is contested in front-line encounters as street-level bureaucrats (Lipsky, 1980) are required to evaluate the claims made by concrete individuals to the victim of trafficking status against these idealised images of the victim of trafficking. Foucault’s (2011) discussion of parresia in his 1983 lecture on the government of the self is relevant in both meanings provided. First, claimants of the victim of trafficking status necessarily make their claim without the freedom to speak and be recognised by the state, which Foucault describes as a political structure. They are strangers amongst the demos of the nation-state against which they make their claim. Second, claimants of the victim of trafficking status must demonstrate they are speaking the truth, in the more social sense described by Foucault, by demonstrating the risks they have taken in their journey, usually with their own body as the warrant of evidence supporting their claim. This paper considers the impact of street-level bureaucrats exercising their judgement when assessing the credibility of the accounts they receive from putative victims of human trafficking. Utilise a theoretical model for evaluating the credibility of non-governmental organisations (Gourevitch & Lake, 2012), I develop a conceptualisation of ‘victim of trafficking’ as a fluid status that is dependent on individuals required to enact a familiar image of vulnerability and victimhood for street-level bureaucrats.
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    The challenge of evidencing coercion and control in the assessment of domestic abuse perpetrators
    (2016-11-11) Tangen, James
    Recent decades have seen significant changes to the way criminal justice practices are understood and developed. Moving away from reactive investigations towards proactive approaches, evidence-based practice has become the new paradigm for policing (Sherman, 2013). Similarly, probation practice has become dominated by the evidence-based practice agenda, potentially at the expense of broader conceptualisations of effective intervention (Lancaster & Lumb, 2006). Alongside the move towards evidence-led practice has been the introduction of formalised risk assessment tools. For example, the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour-based violence (DASH) or Spousal Assault Risk Assessment (SARA) tools (Robinson, Pinchevsky, & Guthrie, 2016). Following patterns of established thinking and research on domestic violence abuse, these tools have tended to focus on documenting violent incidents and their impact on victims. Stark (2007) and Johnson (2008) highlight that while overt violence is important in assessing the risks posed by individual perpetrators, this focus has been to the detriment of a more nuanced understanding of coercive and controlling behaviours not involving violence. The Priority Perpetrator Identification Tool (PPIT), a recently developed structured assessment of individuals and their associated risks, makes a limited attempt to address this problem (Robinson & Clancy, 2015). Within the PPIT, there are sections for practitioners to identify key risk factors, such as the intensity and frequency of violent and abusive incidents, or the individual’s use of alcohol. Brief guidance notes to assist the practitioner in identifying appropriate types of indicators and evidence are included with each factor. The PPIT form includes an area for practitioners to utilise their professional judgement to identify ‘any other concerning information’ (Robinson & Clancy, 2015: p. 50). This is the only area of the tool to mention ‘coercion and control’, offering it as an example of ‘other concerning information’. Robinson and Clancy (2015) recognise feedback from practitioners during the development of the tool identified a need to clarify the meaning of ‘coercion’, as it could be understood to have multiple meanings (p. 18). This paper considers the question of what could be considered as appropriate evidence of coercion and control.
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    Cui bono? Digital technology and the (further) securitisation of the anti-trafficking agenda
    (2019-06-03) Tangen, James; McKie, Ruth E.
    The potential for cyberspace to provide opportunities for transnational criminality has been recognised since the moment criminal justice academics and practitioners turned their attention to the on-line environment (Stratton et al., 2017). As well as offering opportunities for new types of criminal activities, digital technologies provide the means to extend existing offences through transnational networks that transcend the usual temporal and spatial limitations of private criminal enterprise. These technologies also provide new opportunities for law enforcement agencies to leverage additional resources through the co-production of security in conjunction with the publics they are traditionally intended to protect (Chang et al, 2018). In the context of a persistent ‘hostile environment’ for migrants amongst global northern nation-states, policies to tackle human trafficking appear to do more to address national security concerns than to protect and support victims (O’Connell-Davidson, 2010). This paper critically interrogates the purpose of digital technology applications in co-opting citizens and publics in the identification of ‘victims of human trafficking’. Based on developing research by Dr James Tangen and Dr Ruth McKie, the paper argues that the functionality of the apps reproduces existing concerns about the securitisation of migration, adding a further tool for nation-states to control their borders without deploying further resources.
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    Digital Desistance
    (HM Prison & Probation Service, 2017-12-12) Tangen, James
    The process of desistance is underpinned by criminal justice practitioners building positive relationships with offenders as well as recognising their individual skills, strengths and agency (McNeill & Weaver, 2010; McNeill et al. 2012). Recent reorganisations within probation services in England and Wales, as well as a broader austerity agenda have reduced the capacity for delivering group-based rehabilitation interventions depleted. Digital technologies have been suggested as possible way of developing new interventions to achieve the goals of desistance, though their use is currently limited and uneven across the sector (Knight, 2015). Other sectors, such as healthcare, have been more proactive in developing their use of digital technologies to support the delivery of services and treatment. This paper examines the potential of two approaches to utilising digital technologies currently in use by mental health services: personal digital assistants and self-guided therapies. The aim of the paper is to identify the potential for their deployment in a criminal justice context.
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    Digital Media and Public Accountability in the Policing of Brazil's Favelas
    (Eleven International Publishing, 2020-05-20) Tangen, James
    The advent of the world-wide web in 1989 captured public imagination through the possibility of communicating with ever-wider audiences. Initially, this process involved the dissemination of information in public domains, but the later development of Web 2.0 emerged in services that are always available, to which we are always connected, and through which we are able to produce as well as consume knowledge. The initial period following the emergence of the digital society saw law enforcement practitioners, and academic criminologists, respond reactively to digital crime and criminality. Both have adopted a dominant approach to digital media that is a one-way flow of information: either providing information to a passive audience or taking information from an identified target. It is much more recent that either group have begun to utilise digital media to construct dialogues with the publics they serve. The true value of digital technologies remains unrealised, particularly when considering the emphasis within democratic policing on the key principles of transparency and accountability to the public. The exploratory discussion in this chapter is underpinned by a critical literature review, adding to the developing scholarly discussion about digital criminology by examining the value of new media as a tool of public accountability. The chapter seeks to examine how the process of truth-telling in post-transitional states can be augmented by the use of social media and how this might impact on the democratic priority that policing agencies are transparent and held accountable for past and present abuses of power. Digital media, and the counterpublics who emerge from such spaces, have the potential to deliver citizen journalism that recognises the position of individuals within narratives of oppression and identifies opportunities for public, participatory accountability without the need to mediate their message through formal, legal mechanisms or mainstream media outlets. Hashtag activism, such as #BlackLivesMatter, #nuncamais, and #ditaduranão, has the potential to mobilise new participants in the act of public accountability. Each act of public truth-telling reaffirms the credentials of politically engaged users as digital activists, which non-engaged users can witness and distribute across their own social network.
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    Experiential Learning as Transformative: Teaching about Genocide and Crimes of the State
    (2018-08-30) Sadique, K.; Tangen, James
    The ‘applied nature’ of criminology, criminal justice and law courses lends itself to the use of experiential learning within programme delivery (George et al, 2015; Higgins et al, 2012). What is clear from the limited literature is that the use of experiential learning within criminal justice education has been focused on knowledge, skills, roles and identity of ‘the practitioner’. There is very little discussion of the value of experiential learning as transformative of the individual in terms of being able to critically reflect on the experience as a means to understand self and non-conformity to perceived hegemony (such as in the resistance to Nazis during the Second World War). Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1968) ‘Carnival’ and Mezirow’s (1991) Transformative Learning Theory this paper asks the question ‘Can experiential learning be truly transformative?’ It presents findings from narrative interviews with 20 undergraduate students studying Criminology, Psychology, Policing or Criminal Investigation who participated in a field trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau Camps. Interviews were undertaken pre and post field trip to examine students’ expectations of and reflections on the ‘experience’.
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    I feel like I can’t do a lot: Affectivity, Reflection and Action in Transformative Genocide Education
    (Sage, 2021-12-23) Sadique, K.; Tangen, James
    Guided tours of memorial museums have sought to have an impact on visitors through an affective learning environment and critical reflection leading to ‘action’. However, there is limited work investigating the pedagogical underpinnings of such guided tours in order to understand whether they can facilitate action. This paper presents reflections of 21 students’ experiences of educational visits to the former Nazi extermination and concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland between 2017 and 2018. Students identified the guided tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau as having an affective dimension that enhanced understanding and brought about a perspective transformation but action was ill-defined. In considering ill-defined action, this paper attempts to frame understanding of the guided tour of the memorial museum within the context of Transformative Learning. It concludes that guiding practices should incorporate space for reflection and provide examples of potential ‘action’ so that visitors can mobilise their deeper understanding and experience long-term personal ‘change’.
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    The Importance of Narrative in Responding to Hate Incidents Following ‘Trigger’ Events
    (Tell MAMA, 2018-12-07) Sadique, K.; Tangen, James; Perowne, A.
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    Justice and Decolonising DMU
    (De Montfort University, 2020-06-25) Tangen, James
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    The revolving door of reform: Professionalism and the future of probation services in England & Wales
    (Sage, 2018-04-09) Tangen, James; Briah, Ravinderjit Kaur
    Reform of probation services in England and Wales has been a frequent feature of its history, though the pace of review, restructuring and modification has increased exponentially in the last 30 years. This paper provides a brief history of changes to the National Probation Service since its inception in the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 to the recent announcements of the merger of prison and probation services into a new agency, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. Commonalities are identified between the various programmes of reform instigated throughout the last 17 years, drawing on insights from Pollitt. The paper addresses the implications for the future of a public probation service in England and Wales after the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) ceased to exist in April 2017 and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service was inaugurated.
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    The role of credibility in constructing the victim of trafficking status
    (British Sociological Association, 2017-04-04) Tangen, James
    The UK government claims human rights approach underpins their policies to tackle human trafficking (Home Office, 2007, 2011). The decisions of front-line workers about the eligibility of individuals to access the rights afforded to ‘victim of trafficking’ highlights their role as street-level bureaucrats and moral entrepreneurs as they assess claimant’s credibility (DuBois, 2010). Street-level bureaucrats have the ability, both in technical skill and legal-administrative authority, to make judgements about the people they encounter and their entitlement to rights, protections and services afforded by the UK government (Hupe & Hill, 2007). If an individual claiming the status ‘victim of trafficking’ does not provide a credible performance of their claim, it is likely to be dismissed (McKinnon, 2009). Adapting a framework for evaluating the credibility of international human rights NGOs (Gourevitch & Lake, 2012), this paper examines the role of credibility at the nexus of individual claims of human trafficking victimhood and public institutional concerns about border security, migration and criminality. The framework critically examines tensions between the priorities and interests of state agencies are discussed; risk and virtue in narratives of victimhood; evidence and the external validation of claims of victimhood; and the necessity of performing the correct steps when making a claim for human rights. Individuals identified as ‘victims of trafficking’ may find the personal troubles narrated in their claims are transformed in the official narrative of their experiences constructed through records of their institutional journey.
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    Timescapes in public policy: Constructing the Victim of Trafficking
    (Routledge, 2020) Tangen, James
    Human trafficking is presented as a multidimensional problem, constituted by a complex matrix of borders, vertices and spaces. In spite of the agreement of an international definition of trafficking in human beings some 20 years ago, debates persist about what constitutes human trafficking. The malleability of the concepts within this definition, and the range of activities they describe, undermines efforts to provide clarity to front-line professionals and the wider public about how to recognise individuals as potential victims, and what rights should be afforded to them (O’Connell Davidson, 2013). This paper interrogates the role of time and temporality in the construction of individuals as eligible, or ineligible, for the status of ‘Victim of Trafficking’. The paper is structured through Adam’s (1998) approach to time as a multidimensional phenomenon, constituted by timeframes, temporality, sequences, tempo, timeliness, and temporal modalities and a case study of R v N [2012] EWCA Crim 189 is used to illustrate the discussion. The legislative framework, including international and national legal instruments is described. Consideration is given to the differentiation of offenders from victims and the discrete phases of processing individuals through the criminal justice system. Across all of these categories and the borders between them, time shapes the decision of street-level bureaucrats to construct a complex, multi-layered understanding of efforts to tackle human trafficking in England and Wales.
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    What is Digital Criminology?
    (2018-03-05) Tangen, James
    Cybercrime has become one of the most prominent areas of development in policing in the last twenty years. Early attempts to move beyond the broad media language of ‘cybercrime’ and develop a more rigorous framework for categorizing types of cybercrime still focused on the addition of a computer-related element for otherwise familiar types of criminality. More recently, the term ‘digital criminology’ has emerged from the consideration in Australian criminological scholarship of the potential impact of digital technologies across a broader range of criminal justice practices (Smith et al., 2017; Stratton et al., 2017). James interrogates the opportunities and challenges of digital criminology, including the potential of digital technologies in the fields of procedural justice, policing supporting the process of desistance from offending. However, digital criminology includes the potential to raise new concerns about the structure of society and how criminal justice practitioners and researchers can engage with the digital environment.